Tuesdays that are Mondays...

No Tuesday's True Life story today, simply because today is a Tuesday that is a Monday, since it arrives after Monday was a holiday (Labor Day).  And I find that Tuesdays that are Mondays after Mondays are a holiday are worse than Mondays that are Mondays after Sundays. 

Yep, chew on that for a while...

Good things today... I'm going to bed EARLY.  I never do this.  But I'm gonna. Cuz I'm tuckered.  It's time for me to crash.  Sweet dreams!

Tuesday's True Life Story... Skinny Dipping

Have you ever skinny-dipped in a lake in broad daylight with your best friend?  Only you didn't take your suits off until AFTER you got in the lake and swam out about 100 yards off shore... and having nowhere to put your suits to enjoy the full effect of the skinny dipping experience, you dive to the bottom, find a big rock and tuck your suits underneath so they don't float away.  

We were SO smart!  No one saw us naked because we were already in the water before we got undressed!

Only minutes later, my friend's mother started yelling for the two of us to come in and eat dinner.  This is after enough time had passed and we'd been playing around and lost the "spot" I had marked from shore for where the rock was that is holding our suits. Can we say panic?  Did I mention I was, like, 12?  My friend and I were frantic.  How could we swim to shore and walk out of the lake in front of her mom naked?  I mean, she saw us leave with our suits ON. 

Moral of the story... take your suits off BEFORE getting in the lake.  Most of the time, this makes it much easier to find them.

Oh, yeah.  We found the suits, after almost hyperventilating from the repeated dives to the bottom looking for the rock-that-moved, all the time listening to her mom calling us.  Whew!  

Tuesday's True Life Story...

So... many of the blogs I read have a theme for a certain day of the week.  Well, Tuesday is going to be my True Life Story day.  It will be the day I share with you my memories of my life... and as odd as some of them may seem, they will all be one thing:  true stories.

So, we'll start with a brief anecdote today ...

Hanging Upside Down in a Barn

photo from someone wonderful on stock xchng

To set the scene, imagine a piece of skinny, old twine-rope dangling to the first floor of a barn, from a trapdoor in the ceiling (or the second second floor of the barn).  Imagine you hung that piece of twine, and to make it easier to climb, you knotted "loops" into the rope every few inches up.  Hey... making anything "easier" is always better, no?  Okay, now... imagine your best friend Carrie climbing that rope (she's lighter, so of course she would go first) and getting up at least 6-7 feet off the floor.  Almost there, really! 

Whoops!   You know those loops you tied into the rope?  Well, apparently you didn't know how to make a knot that didn't "slip".  This proved a challenge for Carrie, whose foot is now strangled - and very much trapped -  by the rope.  She can't move up or down.  She can't reach her foot.  And she's high enough that you can't reach her very easily. 

Now... imagine Carrie dangling by her foot, upside down, from the old piece of twine-rope hanging from the trapdoor in the ceiling of a barn. 

What would YOU do?

I'll tell you what I did... I dragged an old car seat (bench style) from a room away to set underneath Carrie, all the while she's screaming at me to get her down.  Hey... if the rope broke, and it really wasn't a very sturdy rope, the least I could do is break her fall with the car seat, no??

True story.

PS>  She got down safely... I don't remember how, but I do know I helped.  No car seat necessary.  We climbed the stairs to the 2nd level from then on.

Rainy Days and Mondays

... you know how that ends... rainy days and Mondays always get me down. While I do love a good Carpenters tune, this is so not true for me. Sundays get me down. Mondays are yucky only because it's the end of a weekend "off" and "back to the grind" for those of us who have a "grind" to go to. But rainy days are soothing and mellow for me, although, too many in a row admittedly damper my spirits. But today... today was not raining... and it was simply a GREAT Monday! Some highlights:

• My son is still talking to me.
• I joined a wonderful team of strong, creative women... what else could be better?
• I walked a mile (a little over) and feel so good and energized now.
• I am blogging!
• The cicadas are singing and I love that sound... soon, since the sun is setting the crickets will take over.
• Two people were cutting their grass while I was walking and I love the smell of freshly cut grass!
• Read an email from my sister which had an attachment from an aunt filled with remembrances of times when she was young, with my mom. What a great glimpse into my geneological history and someone's memories of my mom, aunt, uncle and grandparents.
• I paid the balance of my scrapbooking retreat coming up in September.

I hope you had a great Monday... if not... I hope you had a Monday with some bright spots. Remember them. Hold on to them. They're what matter.

Speaking of Art...

Can I just share one of my favorite artists of all times... at least a very old piece of work that is one of my absolute favorites? This little girl was drawn in 2005. Although it is an older piece from this artist, it is one of my favorites... perhaps because I'm so attracted to woodsy/darker/mythological creatures. His detail is amazing to me... I wish I had the talent this gentleman has. Maybe I'm being a little overwhelmingly biased... but hey, he's my son, and I think he's very talented. It is sad that he doesn't think he is. Consider this... in 2005, when he drew this gal (in ink pen, no sketching ahead of time), he was around 16 years old! He inspires me.

What do you think?